. The night in the small Indian village was heavy with silence. The usual sounds of crickets and distant village chatter were replaced by an eerie stillness. The moon hung low in the sky, casting a faint light through the dense trees of the jungle. The forest had always been a place of mystery, its secrets hidden beneath layers of shadows and silence.

Radhika, a woman in her early thirties, had lived in this village her entire life. She had always been strong, self-assured, and never afraid of the dark. But tonight, there was something different in the air. Her footsteps were quiet but deliberate as she made her way deeper into the jungle, away from the village that had always felt like home.